CEO stuns employees by giving them each a $10,000 raise

CEO Dan Price slashed his own salary four years ago to raise those of his employees. Now he’s opening an office in a new city and promising another huge salary increase.

Price, the head of Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments, announced Tuesday that all of the employees at the company’s new Boise, Idaho, office will earn at least $70,000 by 2024.

“This morning we cut the ribbon on the new @GravityPymts Boise office AND announced that all of our employees here will start earning our $70k min salary,” Price tweeted. “I’m so grateful to work with this amazing team and to be able to compensate them for the value they bring to our community.

This morning we cut the ribbon on the new @GravityPymts Boise office AND announced that all of our employees here will start earning our $70k min salary.

I’m so grateful to work with this amazing team and to be able to compensate them for the value they bring to our community. pic.twitter.com/stwwJgYCqQ

Additionally, all employees earning the current minimum will be bumped up $10,000, effective immediately, the Idaho Statesman reports. The Boise office was previously an independent subsidiary, ChargeItPro, acquired by Gravity three years ago.

“A lot of people think giving up a million dollar a year salary and millions in profit is an unreasonable sacrifice to pay a living wage and give small businesses white-glove service,” Price wrote on Instagram Wednesday. “Well, I am proof of one thing. It is worth it.”

Price’s theory is that by investing in his employees, the company will grow faster. He initially made the decision years ago after reading an academic article on happiness.

In 2015, Price was praised as one of the most generous employers in the country when he told his 120 workers that they would all be getting raises over the next three years, bringing the minimum salary of every employee to $70,000. He said at the time that he cut his own salary of almost $1 million to $70,000 to help pay for the raises.

“The market rate for me as a C.E.O. compared to a regular person is ridiculous, it’s absurd,” Price said at the time.